Method of preparing natural cork for industrial use.



S. C. BOND.

METHOD OFPREPARING NATURAL CORK FOR INDUSTRIAL USE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 7, 1916.

WITNESSES: I /N VEN TOR I U O I ATTORNEY Patented May 1, 1917 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL c. norm, or HoL YoAK, DELAWARE, Assienon 'ro BOND BOTTLE SEALING COMPANY, 0E; WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, A co PoEArIoN or DELAWARE.

METHOD OF PREPARING NATUEAL coEK Eon-INDUSTRI L UsE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 7, 1916. Serial No. 130,105.

To'aZZ whom may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL C. BOND,

residing at Hollyoak,inthe-county of Newv to constitute What is known as a crown,

cap. The object of my invention is to reduce waste and to improve the quality of the product,

This application describes and claims an invention of mine disclosed in my now abandoned a plication, filed J anuarynl2th, 1915, Serial l lo. 1735.

' In making the disk-shaped gaskets for bottle closures mentioned above, the usual practice is to take the natural cork from the bales, which is of all shapes, sizes, and

thicknesses, and, after steaming, to slice it into layers. The layers of each piece of cork Wood are, after slicing, laid one upon another, asin the original uncut piece, and the whole reassembled piece .is brought under apunch, and disks are cut through all the layers'with each stroke of the punch. A piece of cork one inch thick is ordinarily cut into about nine layers'and so afl'ords nine disks on each stroke of the punch. When,

the disks have been out they are sorted;

many of them are ready for service as gaskets, but many are imperfect and are not serviceable. The imperfections may consist in small holes running through the disks, and in some grades of cork small hard particles contained in the substance of the material constitute imperfections. Disks which for such reasons are imperfect have heretofore been rejected as unusable; their scrap value is relatively small.

My present invention includes the familiar procedure indicated above, up to the sorting out of the disks, the serviceable from the imperfect. The serviceable disks are "used, as heretofore, and the imperfect ones are subjected to further "treatment, and reclaimed and made serviceable.

small weights, the weights serving to crush and loosen the hard particles. The screen of which the drum is formed allows the crushed and loosened particles to escape.

When the disks have been relieved of these hard particles described, my further method oftreatment consists in building them up into a coherent cylindrical rod, and in slicing that rod again into disks. To this end the disks, before being so built up, are coated with a suitable cement. This cement coats the faces of the disks and the holes also.

The cement will preferably be of an albuminoid character and susceptible to coagula tion: egg or blood albumen, for example, or gelatin in commercial form. The cement may be applied to the disks by tumbling them, together with a proper quantity of it, in a tumbling barrel. When the disks have been coatedthey may, in the use of certain cements, be built-up immediately by superposition into a cylindrical rod, and then either at once or after more or less complete drying the cementing material may be coagulated. If the material be albumen, coagulation will be effected by heat alone. If the. cementing material be'gelatin, and formaldehyde or another substance having like effect beused as a coagulant, the coagulant may be added to the gelatin before the disks'are built up into a rod, or the rod may be built up, and then the coagulant may be applied to it. I

The rodis preferably built up in a cylindrical mold of proper size to receive and hold the disks in snug en agement. Heat is applied'to the articles w1th1n themold to effect their complete union and (if the cementing material be albumen) to effect coagulation also. cells within the substance of the cork and Patented May 1, 1917.

tumble them in such a drum, together with The heat expands the air A the resultant pressure is ordinarily sutfia mold suitably heated, or the mold ma be filled, its ends plugged, and then the lled mold may be heated by immersing it in a bath of hot water or steam. If the ex ansion of the air cells in the substance 0 the to drive the rod through the mold will be.

sufficient to effect the desired closeness of union.

The unified and coherent rod when cooled is out again into disks of oper thickness. The disks cut from the rot. .-.'ill, in almost all cases, be formed of partr if two of the disks of which the rod was initially formed; that is to say, the cuts will seldom correspond with the intercalated films of cement. Consequently, the new disks being formed each of parts of two of the original disks, imperfections which existed in one will usually be overlaid by a perfect portion of the adjacent disk, and the new disk will usually be entirely acceptable as a gasket. As a matter of practice, it may be found desirable to cut the original disks of a thickness other than that of the gaskets ultimately produced; but, if the final cutting be upon planes intermediate the faces of the original disks, the thickness of the disks may be the same in both cuttings, and each of the ultimate disks will be composed of parts of two of the ori inal disks.

The finished disks are sorted, the imper-' feet ones rejected, and the perfect ones are ready for insertion in the metal caps to form bottle closures of the familiar crown type.

The accompanying drawings are illustrative of the foregoing description. Figure 1 shows in side elevation a rotary tumb ing barrel. It is in such a barrel as this that the disks may be tumbled to coat them with cement. Fig. 2 shows in longitudinal medial section a mold in which the built-up disks may be contained while being compressed and heated and consolidated into an integral cylindrical rod. Fig. 3 shows, perspective, the rod formed of the original disks cemented together. Fig. 4 shows in plan and Fig. 5 shows in side elevation one of the ultimate disks cut from the rod of again to disks.

2. The herein described method of preparing for industrial use disks of natural cork which consists of building up and unit ing with a coagulable cementing material the disks into a coherent rod, ooagulatin such cementing material, and cutting sucli rod a ain to disks.

3. he herein described method of preparing for industrial use disks of natural cork which consists in removin from the disks hard particles contain in them, building u and'unitin with cement the so treated dis s into a co erent rod, and cut ting such rod again to disks.

4..The herein described method of preparing for industrial use disks of natural cork which consists in tumbling the disks in a tumbling barrel, treating them with cementing material, building them into a coldig'kent rod, and cutting the rod again to *5. The herein described method of reparing natural cork for industrial use w ich consists in slicing the natural cork into layers, subjecting the layers to crushing strain, removing the material loosened b crushing, and uniting the layers so treate In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

SAMUEL c. BOND.

Witnesses:

HENRY P. Soo'rr, Jr., WALI'BR H. Mxrsox. 

